Air operated ice rink

ABSTRACT

A skating rink having a flat ice supporting surface consisting of a plurality of adjacent air passageways, and one or more automatically controlled blowers connected to the passageways for forcing frigid air from the atmosphere through the passageways to maintain a slab of ice on the surface of the support.

United States Patent Tippmann [451 Apr. 25, 1972 [54] AIR OPERATED ICE RINK [72] Inventor: Joseph R. Tippmann, 21] West Street,

New Haven, Ind. 46774 [22] Filed: Aug. 6, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 61,734

[52] 11.8. CI ..165/54, 62/235 51 Int. Cl ..A63c 19/10 [58] Field of Search ..62/66, 86, 235; 52/122, 292, 52/303, 731, 732

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,996,896 8/1961 Johnson ..62/235 3,538,719 11/1970 Pradel ..62/235 833,791 10/1906 Moran ..52/l22 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 6/1963 Germany ..62/235 421,431 12/1934 Great Britain ..62/235 Primary Examiner-Frederick L. Matteson Assistant ExaminerW. C. Anderson Atlorney.loseph J. Baker [57] ABSTRACT A skating rink having a flat ice supporting surface consisting of a plurality of adjacent air passageways, and one or more automatically controlled blowers connected to the passageways for forcing frigid air from the atmosphere through the passageways to maintain a slab of ice on the surface of the support.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATEr-HEDAPR 25 m2 INVENTOR JOSEPH R. TIPPMANN ATTORNEY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to ice skating rinks and more particularly to an ice skating rink which forms and maintains a layer of ice on a supporting surface without the use of mechanical refrigeration equipment.

2. Description of the Prior Art Prior art ice skating rinks fall generally into two categories, those that use a refrigerated brine solution or those that use refrigerated air. Those which use refrigerated brine have an extensive network of pipes for carrying the brine positioned either directly in contact with the water to be frozen or located directly beneath the surface supporting the water. The brine is cooled by means of an exchanger connected to a large refrigeration system. Those which use refrigerated air employ a large continuous duct system located beneath the surface supporting the water to be frozen or adjacent the top surface thereof. Air refrigerated by means of a refrigeration system is pushed or pulled through the ducts to thereby freeze the water. The aforementioned prior art ice skating rinks have numerous drawbacks, namely, they are very expensive to construct due to time and material required to properly prepare the network of pipes or ducts necessary to carry the refrigerated brine or air. In addition, an extremely large refrigeration system is required to refrigerate the brine or air before it can be used. These refrigeration systems are not only costly in themselves but are costly in their operation both in electrical power required and in the constant maintenance necessary for their upkeep.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention eliminates the aforementioned disadvantages present in the prior art skating rinks and provides a skating rink which can be assembled by a person having average mechanical skill, which is inexpensive to operate, and which requires no elaborate and costly refrigeration system to freeze the water. The skating rink comprises a plurality of air passageways or ducts running the length of the rink. The air ducts are positioned adjacent each other and are supported above the surface of the ground by means of wooden supports extending transverse to the air ducts. Leveling blocks are located beneath the wooden supports to compensate for any uneveness in the ground beneath the rink.

One end of each of the ducts opens into a plenum which has one or more electrically driven fans for either pushing or pulling air from the atmosphere through the ducts and out the end opposite the end connected to the plenum. A plastic liner is positioned over the top of the air ducts and secured to the sides of the skating rink to form a waterproof pan for holding the water and later the ice.

The fans in the plenum are controlled by two thermostats. One of the thermostats is located in the air stream entering the duct system and the other is located in the ice. The thermostat in the outside air will close to turn on the fans, if the outside or ambient air temperature reaches 25 F and will shut the fans off if this air temperature gets as high as 27 F. The thermostat in the ice is set to shut off the fans if the ice temperature goes below approximately 23 F because at this temperature all of the ice will be frozen and there is no longer a need to operate the fans.

The thermostats are set to turn on the fans when the temperature is cold and freeze the water into ice with forced air circulation. The freezing of the water is very fast due to the forced air circulation, thus enabling the formation of a thick slab of ice sufficient for skating in only a few hours as opposed to the natural freezing of a pond or lake which, in the same amount of time, would have either no ice at all or a very thin layer insufficient in thickness for skating.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following specification when read in conjunction with the annexed drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a pictoral view of the air operated ice rink of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the ice rink taken along lines 2-2,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the ice rink taken along lines 3-3 and,

FIG. 4 is another embodiment of a portion of the present invention.

DESCRIP'ITON OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, numeral 10 designates generally the ice skating rink of the present invention showing a layer of ice 12 formed thereon. The rink 10 comprises a plurality of longitudinally extending, spaced apart parallel support members or sleepers 14 positioned above the surface of the ground 16. The support members 14 are maintained level and at the same height with respect to each other by means of leveling blocks 18 positioned between the bottom of the support member 14 and the ground 16.

A plurality of upstanding members 20 are secured to the support members 14 and are held in a position perpendicular to the support members 14 by means of braces 22. A hand rail 24 is secured to the top of the upstanding members 20 to thereby enclose the entire rink and provide support for the skaters. A portion 26 of the hand rail 24 is hinged 28 to provide a means for entering or leaving the rink by the skaters.

A plurality of longitudinally extending U-shaped members 30, preferably consisting of thin gauged galvanized steel, are positioned on top of the support members 14 and transverse thereto in such a manner so as to form air passageways or ducts 32 as can best be seen by referring to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 shows one method of positioning the U-shaped members 30 on the support members 14 to form the ducts 32 which consists of laying the U-shaped members 30 on one arm 34 thereof such that the extreme edges of both arms 34 abut connecting member 36 of an adjacently positioned U-shaped member 30. The foregoing method results in a supporting surface consisting of the upper arms 34 which are slightly smoother than the support surface which results from the U- shaped members 30 positioned in an alternative manner as shown in FIG. 4.

In FIG. 4, the arms 34 of one U-shaped member 30 extend over the connecting member 36 of an adjacently positioned U-shaped member 30 a distance of approximately /4 inch, which, as can be seen, prevents the upper arm 34' from deflecting downward due to an external force thereon, but which results in a slightly uneven surface. Inasmuch as the bottom portion of the ice slab l2 rests on this surface and is 4 or 5 inches thick, the fact that it is uneven would have no effect on the smoothness of the top surface of the ice 12. In both of the methods of forming the support surface as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and discussed above, the adjacent U-shaped members 30 can be sealed or joined together by a strip of conventional adhesive type tape (not shown) if it is felt necessary or desirable to do so.

A pan is formed for holding the water and later the ice consisting of the surface formed by the top surface of the U- shaped members 30 and a side member 38 which is secured to the upstanding members 20 and which extends around the periphery of the top surface formed by the U-shaped members 30. The side members 38 also serve to lend horizontal support to the upstanding members 20 together with the braces 22 and the bottom support member 14.

A liner 40 consisting of plastic or other waterproof material is placed over the top surface of the U-shaped members 30 and adjacent the side members 38 to complete the pan and render it waterproof. A kickboard 42 is secured to the side member 38 above the surface of the ice to hold and protect the liner 40, which is positioned between the kickboard 42 and the side member 38 against damage by ice skates, hockey sticks, pucks, etc.

One end 44 of the ducts 32 is open to the atmosphere, whereas, the other end 46 opens into a plenum 48, as can be seen by referring to FIG. 2. The plenum 48 has one or more 1 electrically driven fans 50 mounted therein to either pull air (indicated by arrows) from the atmosphere through plenum openings 52, through the ducts 32 and out end 44 or draw air from the atmosphere through end 44 through the ducts 32 and out plenum opening 52. Energization of the fan or fans 50 is controlled by two thermostats. One thermostat 54 is located either in the plenum 48 or in the duct 32 to sense the temperature of the air passing therethrough and the other thermostat 56 is located in the ice 12 to sense the temperature thereof. The thermostats 52, 54 are connected to a fan or fans 50 via a junction box and source of electrical current 58 by means of wires 60. The functions of the thermostats 52, 54 and-the operation of the rink, in general, follows.

OPERATION In the Fall of the year, the outside temperature during the day is usually above freezing, whereas, during the night the temperature drops below freezing. Thermostat 54 is set to turn on the fans 50 when the outside temperature reaches a low of approximately 25 F to thereby freeze the water into ice with forced air circulation. As stated previously, the freezing of the water into a slab of ice sufficiently thick for skating is much more rapid than that effected naturally on a pond, lake, or a flooded surface not equipped with the blower and duct system of the present invention.

When the outside air temperature starts to rise close to the melting point of the ice, or approximately 27 F, thermostat 54 shuts off the fans 50 and the thick slab of ice formed will hold or remain in the solid state for several days and nights having above freezing temperatures. Upon the arrival of the next cold spell, thermostat 54 will turn on the fans to refreeze that portion of the ice which has melted. When the temperature outside is above freezing, the top surface of the ice l2 melts and the water runs down between the sides of the ice slab and the plastic liner 40 to a position below the ice slab 12 thus floating the ice. Thus, the top surface of the ice remains clear of water while at the same time, the water to be refrozen is located between the bottom of the ice slab and the air duct system where it will quickly refreeze when the fans 50 are again energized upon a fall in the outside temperature.

Thermostat 56 is positioned in the ice itself to sense when the ice temperature drops below approximately 23 F and to shut off the fans 50 because at this temperature the water is completely frozen into ice and continued operation of the fans is unnecessary.

Having illustrated and described an embodiment of this invention in some detail, it will be understood that this description and illustration have been offered by way of example, and that the invention is to be limited in scope only by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An ice skating rink comprising:

a.a plurality of longitudinally extending air ducts positioned adjacent each other to form a surface for supporting a layer of ice, one end of each of said air ducts being opened to the atmosphere,

b. a plenum connected to the other end of each of said air ducts, said plenum having one or more fans for forcing outside air through said air ducts,

c. means between said supporting surface and said layer of ice for collecting water from the surface of said ice as said ice melts, and means connected to said fans for controlling the operation of said fans in response to the temperature of said outside air and said ice to thereby refreeze said collected water.

2. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said air ducts are formed by two U-shaped members positioned adjacent each other such that the arms of one of said U-shaped members extends a short distance over the arms of said adjacent U-shaped member.

3. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means between said supporting surface and said layer of ice is a plastic liner which forms a waterproof pan.

4. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 3 further comprising a plurality of members positioned below said air ducts for supporting said air ducts and a plurality of blocks positioned between said members and the earth for leveling said members and said air ducts.

5. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means connected to said fans comprises a first thermostat for sensing the ambient air temperature and a second thermostat positioned in said ice for sensing the temperature of said ice.

6. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 5 wherein said first thermostat turns on said fan when said air temperature reaches approximately 25 F and turns off said fans when said air temperature reaches approximately 27 F and wherein said second thermostat turns off said fans when said ice temperature reaches approximately 23 F. 

1. An ice skating rink comprising: a.a plurality of longitudinally extending air ducts positioned adjacent eaCh other to form a surface for supporting a layer of ice, one end of each of said air ducts being opened to the atmosphere, b. a plenum connected to the other end of each of said air ducts, said plenum having one or more fans for forcing outside air through said air ducts, c. means between said supporting surface and said layer of ice for collecting water from the surface of said ice as said ice melts, and d. means connected to said fans for controlling the operation of said fans in response to the temperature of said outside air and said ice to thereby refreeze said collected water.
 2. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said air ducts are formed by two U-shaped members positioned adjacent each other such that the arms of one of said U-shaped members extends a short distance over the arms of said adjacent U-shaped member.
 3. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means between said supporting surface and said layer of ice is a plastic liner which forms a waterproof pan.
 4. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 3 further comprising a plurality of members positioned below said air ducts for supporting said air ducts and a plurality of blocks positioned between said members and the earth for leveling said members and said air ducts.
 5. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means connected to said fans comprises a first thermostat for sensing the ambient air temperature and a second thermostat positioned in said ice for sensing the temperature of said ice.
 6. An ice skating rink as set forth in claim 5 wherein said first thermostat turns on said fan when said air temperature reaches approximately 25* F and turns off said fans when said air temperature reaches approximately 27* F and wherein said second thermostat turns off said fans when said ice temperature reaches approximately 23* F. 